A first FiDiPro for Aalto ARTS in Costume Methodologies
18.06.2014
The School of Arts, Design and Architecture has received its first ever FiDiPro post as Professor Peter McNeil will be supporting the development of Costume Methodologies, a research project run by Professor Sofia Pantouvaki. The project engages research from all of the fields of costume design.
The project aims to build a methodological frame and to propose methodological tools to research costume. The research area involves the creation, production and function of costume in all fields of the performing arts (theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, circus, or other), in mediated storytelling (film, television and digital media), as well as in inter-disciplinary creative projects involving costume.
– FiDiPro funding is valuable because it enables you to connect with other experienced researchers, says Sofia Pantouvaki, principal investigator of the CM project at Aalto University and the first Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film in Finland.
– There`s a creative and communicative level in costume that can`t always be expressed in words, and which we hope to bring to the global research community by mapping that intangible knowledge. This will be done by finding methods, tools, and even terminology to be able to discuss it.
Costume design is a largely under-explored area. Research in costume has mainly been done so far from a specific standpoint thus missing out on capturing the full essence of costume as a cross-disciplinary creative component of live and mediated performance.
– This is why it is important to have both artist-researchers and researchers that have different approaches to various types of performance involved in the project, and this is where prof. McNeil`s experience comes in -- to enrich the research, says Pantouvaki.
The FiDiPro professor, Dr. Peter McNeil, is Associate Dean and Professor of Design History at the University of Technology Sydney. McNeil is a leading scholar in the fields of art and design history, as well as production and fashion studies. McNeil`s projects have received considerable international attention in recent years, and he is regarded as one of the most incisive critical writers on the place of dress within contemporary culture.
Building a research environment – and a dialogue
Another aim of the project is to strengthen the research environment in Aalto University. Besides the present post-doctoral researcher in Film Costume, the intention is to employ researchers to specific case studies from different fields involving costume, with the FiDiPro funding. The case studies will function as examples of building and testing specific research methods.
The upcoming event, Critical Costume (http://www.criticalcostume.com/) in March 2015, will support the building of a research environment and the framing of long-term research collaboration at an international level. Critical Costume 2015 includes an academic conference and an exhibition with the participation of international artists and academics from various fields related to costume design.
– We want to show that all these fields can participate in a dialogue. The event holds a lot of potential as it offers Aalto University`s Costume in Focus research group the opportunity to become a centre for international research in the field, says Sofia Pantouvaki.
Within the FiDiPro funding programme, the Academy of Finland funds leading-edge researchers who will primarily be based in strategically important and scientifically significant areas at universities and research institutes. The applications are submitted by a university or research institute and peer-reviewed by esteemed international experts.
Launched in 2006, the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme is a joint funding programme of the Academy of Finland and Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation). With funding from the programme, Finnish universities and research institutes can hire foreign or expatriate Finnish top researchers to work in Finland for a fixed term. The FiDiProprogramme is aimed at achieving long-term international research collaboration with a view to strengthening Finnish scientific and technological knowledge and know-how.